nawab on search for his ladakh

Sep. 7, 2008 - some of the munificient e mails. describing much about me..

My dear friend and brother!

Thank you so much for your mail! I really thought that my one didn't
reach you. Therefore I let my girlfriend send you one more. However...

I read the details about your live in your mail with very much interest
brother! Really! I like the part about your stay and work at SECMOL. Do
you want to got there again this summer? And do you want to become a
teacher? (I am not sure, but I think you mentioned something like this
in 2002, right?)

Since I left Ladakh in 2002 I am often dreaming about to come back to
Ladakh for a long term stay with trekking, photographing and working.
Working means, I would like to offer my knowledge about didactics,
teaching methods, paedagogic, psychology, language learning, etc. to
SECMOL and to work there for half a year or so, to help to train good
and excellent Ladakhi teachers for Ladakhi children but also teaching
trainers.

My girlfriend will become a teacher for handicapped children who are
hearing-impaired and / or have speech defects. She is also interested
and curious to come to Ladakh and probably she could tell the Ladakhi
teachers something about how to work with handicapped children and people.

We would like to bring books and scripts and so one and to live on the
campus in Phey or maybe in a neat, clean and calm guesthouse or
farmhouse (for a very special long-term-stay price) where we can work
and prepare the lessons.

I also would like to go into the villages to see what's going on there
in the schools and classes and maybe to help there. We will see. Sooner
or later I will contact SECMOL to ask, if there is need for such a
programme or not. But I think it also depends on, if the present
situation and the trouble with the District Magistrate will calm and
will be solved. I hope so.

Anyway: It's all just a matter of (plenty of) time and money which we do
not have in the moment and probably in the next 2 to 3 years also not.

In the moment I am preparing for my final exams to get a diploma which
is similar to a master (I think I told you about in my last mail) and
with 99% I will start at the 1st of August to work at my university as
collaborator in a scientific research project about illiteral youth and
adults. In this project I will probably write my PHD and then I would
like to come back to Ladakh...

I also like the part where you wrote that you want to become a writer. I
have a story to contribute: After the first time I was in Ladakh in
2000, when I came by bicycle across the Himalayan (you may take a look
on my website), back in Germany I tried to become a journalist and
wanted to study this in university. For the beginning I wrote articles
and offered them to several newspapers. Response: ZERO.

It was quite a very hard time for me due to the fact that it didn't work
and that I had no success with my articles. Sooner or later I understood
and relized that this is probably not my way and after a long period of
thinking, suddenly it spoke to me: Become a teacher for primary school.
I don't know why, but in this moment it was clear to me to become a
teacher. I started to study, came to Ladakh went back to Germany made my
first exam and so one.

Today, and that's the point of my little tale, I am writing articles for
a teacher magazine, I am a member of the editorial staff of a magazine
of a teacher union and my girl friend and I are developing and designing
teaching materials for a book publisher.

What I want to say: Don't give up! If the direct way is blocked and
doesn't lead you to your goal, there might be a good reason for. Don't
take it as failure or a personal defeat. Take another way and maybe you
reach your goal on a detour. Just believe in the different powers
between earth and sky. This is what I learned so far in life about the life.

By the way: I would appreciate it very much if you sent me your idea,
your central theme for your Novel!

You wrote that you are "still very weak in certain fields and there is a
very large gap to fill". I think this is absolute normal. Think about
this: As more we learn, as more we realize how tiny our knowledge is and
how much we do not know and how much we never will know. I read it
somewhere in conjunction with theories of learning, knowledge and truth,
in philosophy I think.

Due to the fact that I miss Ladakh and the good times I had there very
much, I watch on Google-Maps from time to time the places where I have
been. Unfortunately only the square of Leh is in high resolution. Take a
look here and zoom in:
http://maps.google.de/maps?f=q&hl=de&q=Leh+india&sll=50.092393,10.195313&sspn=26.94826,59.238281&ie=UTF8&ll=34.147187,77.562103&spn=0.033812,0.086002&t=k&z=14&om=1

Here is the link of the place where I am living. The green arrow should
excactly point to the house where my flat is in:
http://maps.google.de/maps?f=q&hl=de&q=48.835928,+9.63804&ie=UTF8&ll=48.836083,9.638041&spn=0.001681,0.003616&t=k&z=18&om=1

The village is called Walkersbach and is very, very small in relation to
other villages. No shop, no supermarket, nothing except of houses. ;-)

Here is the link to my university, 20 km away from my home village:
http://maps.google.de/maps?f=q&hl=de&q=48.791252,+9.829266&ie=UTF8&ll=48.791563,9.829266&spn=0.003364,0.007231&t=k&z=17&om=1

So tell me please, what are you doing in the moment and what are you
going to do? Working, studying? I didn't catch that point. Drop me some
lines, please!

Are you back at home in Ladakh now or are you still staying in Delhi? A
friend of mine, a buddhist nun from Ladakh who is studying in a Tibetan
monastery in South India just went back to Ladakh and her homevillage
Mato at the beginning of May.

If you meet somebody from the school (pupils, staff, teachers), tell
him/her my very best greetings, please!

I hope you and your family are fine
my best wishes and thoughts are with you

Your friend and brother

Philipp

_____________________________________
R.-Philipp Rackwitz
Kirchweg 24
Ot. Walkersbach
D-73655 Plüderhausen

phone: +49 (0) 71 82 / 30 59
email: kontakt@philipp-rackwitz.de
visit: http://www.philipp-rackwitz.de

About Me

this is somehow personal but deals with the changing phase of my land which is on the verge of cultural genocide,staggered economy and .......... The greatest gift that i bestowed from my ancestors is this unique piece of land...the land of lamas,the land of passes... and yes the perfect habitat of 21st century.

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